I suddenly can't remember how to punctuate. Please somebody tell me how. Its driving me nuts. Which is correct? He closed the book and said, "The answer isn't in here." or He closed the book and said, "the answer isn't in here."
You have to capitalize the first word in dialogue. There is an exception. He closed the book and said, "The answer isn't in here, and..." he continued after picking up another book, "furthermore..." That's a terrible sentence, I know, but it was just to make a point. The first word in the second piece of dialogue doesn't need to be capitalized.
That's a good way to remember that. I came back to mention that any words that would require capitalization in any other situation (like proper nouns) would be capitalized in the second set of quotation marks, of course.
This reminds me of a Mexican friend I had growing up. One time he forgot the word a word. He was trying to tell me to get someting, and he said, "Get me the, uh, that thing, you know, it has a button on it, and it makes light." "Flashlight?" We laughed so hard.
HA! That reminds me of a friend I worked with. Whenever she would want something and couldn't remember the name of it, she'd call it a "Hoobeedoo" Not exactly sure how it would be spelled if it were a real word, but that is what it sounds like (Who-- Bee-- Do) I laughed and was like "who be--huh--what?" I have those times when I'm sitting there bumbling like a fool, "you know,that thing...the thing...the thing...it kind of rectangular and buttons on it, changes the tv channels..." "Remote control" my hubby looked at me like I had grown a second head. I started laughing hysterically. It's even funnier when I'm a tad bit inebriated.
